If You Need Me to Pretend
by Rionarch
Summary: Takes off from the Deicide chapters.The Hyogyoku grants the owner's wishes; twisted victories and selfish whims are all they can get. Aizen/Ichigo, some Ishida/Ichigo
1. Simmer

AN: Hey. Some of you might remember the plot mess that was "The Coldest Sound". Some crap happened last spring and I didn't have the time, energy, or passion to finish the story- but I did. It was taken down and the editing has started. So thank you for being so patient with me.

Warnings: This will appear in this chapter only, so please pay attention. In this fic there will be cursing, body horror, non-con/dub-con. I'm pretty sure this is the worst of it, but if you feel something should be added please just tell me over review or PM. If you see glaring errors in facts there is a reason.

...

Sousuke felt the Hyougyoku twirl and move inside of him without any consideration to how it would feel; the burning energies going in and out of his body, slowly becoming more and more _Him_ but a taste of something else that he would never have control of. It was the thing's sentient thoughts that he had to oblige himself by. He never bent his own will to anybody or anything but for this he would. The power that coursed through him trembling and constantly chancing; he'd wake up in the mornings physically different until he could control himself again; wings, hands, everything was within the capability of this little orb.

In front of him were things he hadn't wanted to deal with. The forward march should have continued until the King's domain but he'd been forced back by something. Gin wasn't happy and Tousan had no words on the matter. No life, either.

Stark. Barragan. Harribel. Ulquiorra. Nnoitra. Zommari. Aareoneiro. Yammy. For the most part his Espada were dead and only the bodies in front of him were anything of worth yet. Neliel was still here, under the _careful_ nursings of Szayel, probably trying to make amends with his more powerful enemy- and Grimmjow. _Oh_ Grimmjow. Gin had something of a sympathetic spot for that type; he'd kept the company of the eleventh division far too much.

It would be so easy to end it now and just to snap the head off of the beast before he woke up. He tried. Sousuke felt the orb inside of him practically _scream_ with reiatsu. His arm shook from straining to carry out his own actions. He would bend his will to this thing. Grimmjow's pride was broken now and he could be dealt with on a one on one manner if he'd like or Gin could make another pet out of him.

Sousuke felt the strife still flowing through his arm as he raised Kyoka Suigetsu and slashed through the six still tattooed on the arrancar's side. There were no more Espada and a number rank meant nothing. Grimmjow meant nothing. Everything in this place had so little of consequence in it that an irrational anger at having been forced back into this temporary home; he wanted it _done_.

"That's awfully kind of you, Aizen-taicho." Sousuke knew he wasn't being fair or just or anything that could be mistaken for the values of a good leader. He'd been spending his time in his own mind trying to regain complete control of his body. Gin must feel awful. Stuck, too, in this white prison with nothing to do himself. It would account for all of the strangeness. They had been something tight in his lieutenant manner since the aborted fight.

"Gin. I know you have a soft spot for fools like Grimmjow. Take him- there is no more reason for him to be here." The orb inside of him whirled in contentment- it approved of this action. Good.

Sousuke idly wondered if this might be a good thing; being tamed by some object with no personality or ego to speak of. Gods and Kings of Ego and too full of themselves would fall easily under the guise of invincibility. This would ensure a check would remain of him and he would be the _best_ he could be.

The reiatsu died down and his thoughts felt lighter; noticeably only now that it was gone, like a headache being relieved or a bright light dimmed.

Sousuke frowned as Gin left the room gleefully dragging Grimmjow's body behind him. The expression was uncomfortable on his face.

He _liked_ Las Noches. It was clean and blank and could only be projected on itself and he didn't find much appealing about a creature that was a conglomerate of the eleventh division. He could easily stay with Madarame if he wanted the same feeling. To make matters worse he had not experienced emotional swings like this since he'd finally got rid of Hirako; and he still didn't want to think about that.

A fatigue set in.

He could only imagine that he has expunged too much energy this mornings still trying to retain his form as _he_ wished. Call him vain but this was an image he had perfected and would not allow for a temperamental thing change that.

There was still so much to think about and how to fix. Strike at the shinigami while the were down. Crush the hopes of the exiles and their ilk before they considered this a victory. And most importantly he must regain the king's key. The first, though, would be crushing the hope; all of them symbols that encouraged the Seireitei in their worst moments.

But for now, he would sleep and let the Hyougyoku lull him to a sleep, beating louder than his own heart.

Another pillar went down to dust with a careless fling of his arm. A few more steps and he felt his wings branch out and glide with himself over into the air, moving so fast the debris looked like solid pieces suspended in the air, and retracted again.

A gentle pause and he was back in a regular shape, no oddities or pains, no vestigial growth or disorderly compositions.

The matter still in the air and falling now that he was more up to a comprehensible speed pulsed and shivered with the energy he put into in. Moments later a new shape was erected of the pieces, all in line like perfect soldiers.

Sousuke smiled at the reconfiguration of Las Noches. Something as complex as a building was under his command with the faintest whim. More importantly his body was completely his own again; he'd reached far beyond what any other person, living or dead, had before. Everything was as it should be.

Gin, for his part, frowned at the gaping window that had been a wall.

As bad as keeping a paper trail was he knew from the very beginning that some things should be written in order. The dates were written and he had no reason to lie to himself nor were they edited in anyway.

He simply could not remember what everything meant. Not things like the abbreviation; entire plans suddenly made no sense to him what so over. Insanity had been considered for a few moment before the cold truth had settled into his chest.

The Hyougyoku had reached his mind. This orb was no longer just affecting his physical state, his judgment, but he was loosing parts of himself. Like the image of a cliff worn down and crumpling under a storm.

"Gin…where was the plan." Sousuke knew the image he presented was a tense one. He looked over the maps and charts, staring blindly, shoulder's hunched over. As if his life's work was completely foreign to him. It was all that he could do to not break out in a cold sweat at his failure.

In all logical progressions of power a price had to be paid. He was going for God so he was aware that something should- would, since consideration played no part in this. Aside from Gin he had no human or otherwise close companion, he had no family. He thought the distance from people; his constant barrier between himself and the ants and worms of life and never taking any comfort from it would be enough. That when he finally lost all his human emotions that it would pay off and he would not care for their absence.

No. He was loosing the very thing he prided himself on; self control of his mind. He was under an illusion of himself, of his own doing. Part of him felt the irony.

Sousuke Aizen but for a brief moment contemplated his own suicide.

The hyougyoku did not like that. The pain spread across his body with blinding feelings of panic and disturbance.

Lines reconfigured in front of his face on the paper. Nothing about it had changed but it was like the lights had turned on for himself and suddenly he could see again. The plans were again what he wanted them to be and not a foreign document taunting him with his loss.

An easy way to overcome the obstacle. He would have to remember that his life was _precious_ to the orb. Slowly but surely he was coming to master the Hyougyoku; albeit hiding the weakness of growth was not easy.

"Aizen-taicho shouldn't be playing games like this now." Gin's slanted eyes were not happy if the frown meant anything. He had his hands pressed up in a stance for kido- he knew Gin enough to know his battle movements.

"We're all playing games, Gin. Maybe some of your love of life has rubbed off on me. Wasn't I always a hard one to loosen up?" His lieutenant wouldn't betray him. For the entire time he'd known the by there had always been something off about his dedication and how far he went. They'd crossed so many lines time and again that Sousuke felt reasonably sure that Gin would never think about it- as long as dear Matsumoto was kept safe.

"Oh, but you said something different before." Sousuke raised his eyebrow. He had not, even under strife, said anything regarding the plans recently. His lieutenant was a very twisted fellow if he thought he could trick _him_.

"Perhaps its the understanding that is too forgone." Gin was still frowning and the face looked out of place on him. The Hyougyoku agreed with a pulse, weaker now. The orb was melting into his body like another organ and the pain he felt was beginning to lessen.

"No, you changed them. We ain't ready." This was as urgent as he could get.

"You should be nothing but steadfast." Through the reprimand, Sousuke felt proud of the man before him. He was thinking further ahead and not just going to play with his prey.

"Maybe if taicho wasn't so strange..." There was a little something again of Gin's old self. A bit more carefree than he'd been in the recent years with his time ticking.

"I am not strange. The dynamics of this all has changed and we must compensate."

"What about your reasons for this?"

"...my reasons were not for discussion." Sousuke made sure the jovial smile was still on his face even as he felt the tightening of his facial muscles. He wanted to give into the tic of frowning but never would. He'd gotten far too good at smiling at fools for the mask to fall so easily.

"Kinda sure I knew."

"You're years too early to understand, Gin."

"Ah so, does this mean we can make new rules to the games we play?" The tense nature of the room was built and quickly came crashing down again. It was if it just disappeared as easily as it had come. That grin on his face made him look seventy years younger, a gangly kid taller than he could fill out.

"Your worries are appreciated, Gin, but for now we have to accommodate for a gap in our numbers..." They had back up plans for it all but he didn't think he had to kill Kaname so soon and a third was needed for some of these to go through. Even if they needed a scape goat or a sacrifice it had to be a _good_ one, not fodder, which made the workings difficult.

"Doncha think we should just fill it in?" Sousuke was warmed that his lieutenant was always a step behind him; supportive...and slower. "But who could do it like Kaname. He was very bossy- I don't wanna deal with another bossy person." So childish but hat was Gin.

The plans were much easier now that the Shinigami were on the alert. They would be waiting for everything, except what was coming directly towards them.

"Uhn..." Ichigo was glad that Ishida had his own apartment or this would have never happened. His father explained things but there was that incredibly distance between them right now but...

They were curling on Ishida's couch- he still hadn't been able to think of the other as Uryu- getting closer to one another. Ishida's hand; quick and clinical in his jerking his dick to completion must sooner then him. Ishida was still hard in his hand. It was like the bastard was thinking that it was a competition. Part of him felt vindicated anyway with the noises coming out of Ishida's mouth.

"Damn." Ishida twitched in his hand and collapsed on top of him breathing heavily. They were both messy with their spunk over their pants and their dicks just hanging out but Ichigo watched the television go from a football game to a car advertisement.

"Tired already, Ishida?" There. Take _that_ crap for making this a stupid race.

"Uryu."

"Hmm?" The game was back on. Ishida was on top of him, literately squishing the two of them together while burying his face somewhere along his shoulders in a too close hug. Tachikawa scored.

"I should be Uryu now. Ichigo." There wasn't any more conversation after that. Ishida had wiped them both off but stayed glued awkwardly to his lap, small puffs of air telling Ichigo that he was sleeping.

He'd be okay with this. When he and Ichida were yelling at each other about what happened at the dome and that _accident _happened the relationship popped up. This was the first time they'd gotten this _physical_.

Ichigo felt terrible. This was good- great even- but he saw Ishida's head over his shoulder and realized in the pit of his stomach that it wasn't enough.

"Taicho, I don't like this plan."

"A little violence is starting to get to you?" Sousuke looked over his shoulder at Gin who was hesitantly following him up the stairs to what remained of the north tower. It was quite different to their original goings but it would make everything so effective at the same time. He hadn't counted on how far the humans would go to protect what is there's. Before them next to the plans were picture of the students.

Kurosaki, Inoue, and the other two ryoka were major focal points from them were a few more; two girls and two boys, each growing slowly in their spiritual powers. They couldn't erase time yet but he wasn't going to take chances on their abilities growing to be something that would make things worse off for them.

"Nah, always liked a little blood. It's just that this plan isn't like any of ya others." the rubble around them was still laced with the feeling of Ulquiorra and Kurosaki's fight. Some pieces of the stone still glowed with black fire from either of them.

"Maybe it's staying in the dark so long that is making you uneasy. I trust you enough to not cross over the borders and back into the Rukongai, as tempting as it is." Gin would never want to go back to the world for anything. It was possibly worse off than hell simply because didn't deserve it.

"Dunno. Might be fun to go back to some of my old haunts. You never know what you'll see in the bushes." Sousuke thought he felt something from his lieutenant that he'd never felt before. Was Gin keeping something from him?

"Heh. Just play with the butterflies, Gin. Don't worry it won't be for long...and then you could probably have you grasp on Matsumoto again." He knew he wasn't imagining it anymore. Gin was throwing him dirty look as he stepped into the void between the worlds. It was oozing purple but it was their only resort. His fists were clenched so tight that his knuckles turned white.

Sousuke wondered if he shouldn't mention Matsumoto again as he walked though his own dimensional rip, aiming an opening towards Kurosaki and the next beginning.


	2. Slam

AN: Special double chapter! See first chapter for warnings.

...

Ichigo frowned as they walked into the courtyard of the school. Since the battle with Aizen everything had been quiet. It was unnatural. There were no hollows, no shinigami, but that wasn't even the strangest of the behavior. People were supposed to heal now. Everyone around him was in worse ways than one.

The ghosts weren't being ghost like.

Where as some of the souls he had brought to the Soul Society were upset about their death, it seemed like everything was dying all over again. There was one ghost, a woman of about twenty-four that he had been watching for a few days. Every day the lethargy around her grew and grew. One week ago she was a vibrant (and dead) woman. Today he saw her at the worst. The skin sunk in like an old zombie movie and there was no emotion in her eyes. Even the chain keeping her tied to the ground was eaten away slowly. It was the picture of inaction.

"Ichigo, leave it for now. We'll figure it out after school." Ishida nudged his shoulder and gave the plus a sympathetic look. He wouldn't be much help either. Ishida, still through with his Quincy Pride, wanted for the elimination of Hollows, not the plusses that had no little problems themselves. Ishida was a problem all by himself.

"You wouldn't look for slovenly if you would just let me put zipper on to your shirts." Ichigo glared at his homeroom skulking with Ishida- Uryu- whining about his shirts again. Again. They didn't fit right because he wanted some comfort underneath them and zippers wouldn't change that.

"But I'm okay with my buttons." Was he being glared at again? Oh yes he was.

"Then would it kill you to trade your 'okay' to resolve my irritation with you?" The transition between being friends and being boyfriends had no clumsy ground between the two of them in, his opinion. Things were exactly the same including the things that bothered him about Ishida before. Only know he was being asked to pretend he cared about that stupid crap.

"I. Like. My. Shirts." They had reached their seats now with barely a touch between them. He'd had it with this. Ishida wanted a relationship and he got it. He wanted them to be closer so he moved in. Enough was enough.

"You two shut it now." It was only then that he noticed his friends were not as they should be. Chad was even more hunched over, Mizuiro and Keigo looked hungover and flu stricken, and Chizuru was actually laying on Tatsuki's shoulder with Inoue trying to help them. She frowned but didn't say anything to them. Tatsuki gave him a glare that said enough.

"Guys?" Chizuru just moaned and tossed a bottle over to him.

"Won't be long before you guys get sick too. This has been passing back and forth between us four and my head hurts make it stop." The others looked grim and Inoue tapped the pins on her head. Most of them were in the loop about the spiritual world but Chizuru wasn't. Aspirin wasn't going to help that kind of headache when reiatsu started to crush you.

"Arisawa it might be best if you all went home and rest." Keigo nodded for them and started to pack of his bags. If there was a sign to how bad they felt he hadn't even tried to hug him. Ichigo wandered over to Chad more concerned about his slump. He'd seen Chad get blasted through cement and walk it off better than that.

"It feels like my shoulders are trying to burn themselves off." There weren't any other questions needed. Whatever was happening to them has something to do with the spirit world and their bodies couldn't take it. Inoue and Ishida came back from walking the others out.

"The same for you, Sado? Us three don't heavily involve our bodies- Inoue's pins, my arrows, and Kurosaki's heritage lend us to different reiatsu manipulation. It seems like the others are waking up to their own talents as well. Not as peacefully as before..." Ishida was looking down at his Quincy cross as if it had the answers he wanted.

"Ah but wasn't the reason we had our powers because of the Orb inside of Rukia-chan?" Ichigo looked at he and was glad that her appearance was better off. He knew well enough not to say fat, but she just seemed to be getting full again. Grimly he wondered if her friends getting sick wasn't helping her confidence back.

"It might explain the pain then." Ishida sighed and bumped their hips together practicably melding them into one.

"We should go see Geta-Boushi." Unanimous nods all around as Chad took one of the pain killers. The bell rang and Ishida pressed a kiss to his neck before fluttering off to his seat.

Ichigo frowned and touched the spot. Even now when Ishida wasn't being a jackass and acting decent he still didn't like it and felt guilty over it again. Then he would try to be extra nice to Ishida tonight and then he would get irritated, making him guilty again.

Maybe some distance would be good.

He had always loved a good show, and letting Kurosaki get the "jump" on him was an opening act.

He'd snuck up on the boy a bit unfairly but hadn't done anything. It looked like the boy was walking back from the Quick Mart little Hanataro worked out. In a flash the body was on the ground and he was under Zangetsu's point.

Let the show begin.

He'd left Kyoka Suigetsu in his throne room to watch over everything while he was gone but this performance didn't need any of his illusions. Aizen smirked at the sword drawn to his face. He was on his back with Kurosaki's foot pressed against his chest in the weak means of keeping him down, ready to kill him by all appearances. Sousuke would give the shinigami this; he had excellent reaction skills. Had any one but a captain level shinigami tried this, they would be dead instead of simply 'captured'.

"I dare you." The sword, Zangetsu, never touched his neck-just as he thought. Kurosaki might be angry at him but the dark look in his eyes would never drive the sword foreword like that. He could practically feel the energy rolling off of him pressing against his own force like water against a dam. Rapid waters were falling in waves against the walls, threatening even with danger.

"Gently. I've only come to apologize to yourself and your friends. It was a dreadful mistake to target Karakura for our plans, none of them were hurt I'm sure? No matter I will speak to them about it. Thanks to our recent fight you've helped push me beyond my expectations...I no longer need your city to achieve what I want." As if on cue the orb pulsed so they can both feel it. It was practically crying out "I'm here too, me, me, me!" Kurosaki's reiatsu was familiar for it.

Kurosaki, before him, had a different view of things. His eyes were trained on him, taking in the slightest of movements and he adjusted the blade that scraped his skin in the slightest of ways. "You've lied about everything else why not this?"

"Awfully rude of you not to accept an apology. Then again you do invade private homes on a frequent enough occasion..."

"You've been involved with my entire _life_ so you don't get to pick and choose what I accept. I should just turn you in now." There was the hesitance that fight had not driven out of Kurosaki yet. The chocolate and his hundred and third privion had suggested. He would never hurt or turned someone not in a fight.

"And here we get to another point of my emissary of peace. Have you received any mission?" Sousuke turned his head and looked at the backpack and body Kurosaki had left in his haste; there was the soul reaper's badge.

It was, mostly, thanks to Gin. The peculiar force field around Karakura had kept everything of the spiritual nature in and unable to receive anything from the outside. Since it was activated the moment he walked through the world divide, Sousuke imagined that it was a failsafe during the forward march. Just incase he got too close. How lucky that it worked in his favor now.

The Death Butterflies that would have given messages were being slashed by Gin in the world prepice. Word of nothing would reach Kurosaki and Inoue. They would feel as abounded as they appeared to be.

"Vizard, they'll do away with you too." The subtle hint was already there.

"It's not so bad." The sword was drawn away in a wavering attempt but was right back to where it had been. He looked almost weary as he backed away towards his body and possessions not knowing where this non-fight was going.

"Of course it would not be, for you. Has your family tried leaving the General's barrier? You are locked in here. This," He gestured to the city and living beings that didn't know God was watching them, "Is your prison. You crafted it yourself." Kurosaki said nothing but trembled. The soul pager went unblinking, unaware.

"Mmm. Centuries with Hirako as company. Sounds pleasant." Sousuke closed his eyes and felt his body get ready to disappear. His insides went hollow and the other shell of his skin unraveled like a ribbon, coming together again a few paces behind Kurosaki. "The fuck." He smirked.

"Pick up your jaw. I told you you've helped push me farther than anyone else." Kurosaki looked to the ground and muttered something. No, do not divert. Your attention should be held by _me_ and the Hyougyoku trilled.

"Wait. You know Shinji? How...you did something to them." The other had stopped asking questions it seemed. How proper of him.

"Any division would have been proud to have you; honorable, dedicated, caring. Too bad you're too composite for any world." He opened a garganta in near the river side, drawing in the light like a void less black hole. It struggled to be opened but did non the less. It would take a stronger kido to keep him trapped...must it might reach it sooner than later. The orb inside pulsed not hurtfully when he broke through the veil between both worlds.

"Get back here, Aizen! We're not through-"

"Your badge."

"What of it?" The sword was poised at him again but he was beyond it's reach.

"It hasn't alerted you of anything. Am I really your enemy?" There was no beeping as he crossed back into Hueco Mundo.

...

He watched Inoue fidget in her seat and try to catch his eye over the course of the bus ride. The rain made then flee to the bus stops instead of the walk over and it was spent in silence. He'd had lunch his lunch break interrupted, wasn't that an understatment, by Aizen and her with the girls, explaining that Tatsuki and Chizuru were sick so they didn't have the chance to talk all day, but she finally caught up after Ishida pulled the stop.

"Inoue, is something the matter?" Ichigo didn't like this one bit. Something was going on between Inoue and Ishida, like something cold settled between the two of them since they'd gotten back from Hueco Mundo; had the dome really changed things that much between them all? Chad, for all his luck, was still normal about it all.

"No but Kurosaki-kun...?" Inoue kept sending a look to Ishida and him back at her.

"Ishida, I'll meet up with you in a few blocks." Chad had cut out last period when the burning became too much, so Ishida would have to go at it alone. He'd all but moved into Ishida's apartment now. He went home and just laid around there feeling so out of sorts and lies. He really, really understood why Isshin did what he'd done but it felt like the only things keeping the walls up there was his mother's posters. Yuzu and Karin were having their own problems that he couldn't help with- yet. Since the start of everything last spring he hadn't noticed that the rooms were getting smaller and more constrictive. Ishida's apartment was freeing but that came with its own chains.

"I'll _confess_ that this is disappointing. You should be able to get my name right by now." Shit. He did it again. Ishida left and Ichigo could see the tension leave Inoue's shoulders almost immediately.

"You got a visit from him too? Please tell me you did." Inoue was nervous looking and waiting for the answer. She has every right to be. That man had tricked everyone in the Soul Society and kidnapped her.

"He apologized to you? Maybe it does mean something." Ichigo felt his heart clench when she stopped. He didn't like the rain to begin with but seeing here there was worse. Her hair was flat and clinging to her face, all the weight she had gained back still didn't seem like enough. She was reminding him of Ukitake right then; strong enough to matter but always looking sick.

"Do you really, really think it could matter, Kurosaki-kun?" Chad and Ishida were waiting for them outside of the shop, the one's arms transformed and looking less like he wanted to curl into himself.

It was too much right now. Hearing nothing from the Soul Society, Ishida, Aizen coming by to _apologize_, and everyone that was there hurting. It was one day in the streets of Karakura when everyone slept.

Except, thought Ichigo, us.

"You know, I used to be scared of Urahara-san." They walked slowly leaving steps in the rain. It was like a death march and he had no idea why.

"Were you?"

"It always felt like a sword was coming at me. Like I would never be able to shield myself." They were closer now, looking at the warm shop but still in the rain. She wasn't looking at him.

"He wouldn't attack you guys. Me on the other hand..." He tried to get rid of the tense situation by reminding her of their crazy ass training period. It didn't work at all, if the tears were any indication.

"Yes. Yes, you Kurosaki-kun. Now I feel like that with you." She looked at him and focused in, like she could see his hollow. "I'm so sorry. But Ichigo, you...you scare me. I don't want to think what he said was true. You _can't_ believe that...?"

Ishida wanted something from him that Ichigo didn't think he even _knew_ what to give and Inoue was afraid of him.

She bowed her head and walked foreword into the shop, head a little higher. Everything, including him, that scared Inoue was behind her. It was good for her. For their friends.

But he was still standing in the rain, in a prison he made himself. God fucking damnit.


	3. Slump

AN: Finals are nearly done, so expect the chapters out quicker. The first real hints of what happened is mentioned. Once again the warnings are on the first chapter.

...

Urahara looked at the half group of kinds before him. Ichigo, Ishida, and Inoue were all distant from each other but he could not deal with their relationship troubles at this point. There were far more serious matters at hand. The four humans were laying in various states of pain and physical fatigue on the floor of the shoten.

"Kisuke, it's time." His partner in crime had been helping with keeping their fevers down but it was time for discuss.

"Quite. Urahara-san, what is exactly going on here?" Ishida perked up from his spot between Honsho and Arisawa. They were all barely conscience. He looked down at the from behind the fan. They had all helped him at some point or another keep the hollow population down but he never saw the potential for more in them. The lack of spirit particles around was wearing him down as well.

"There is a barrier around the Karakura prefecture; not unlike the one that was around the Seireitei. It controls the excess of spiritual energy in the air and makes it...incredibly difficult to move through. However, this one is a bit different. Instead of simply holding the energy in, it's sapping it up and making the barrier stronger." He tried using the simplest words he could without giving anything away but it seemed that he would have to give up the crucial detail. Not yet.

"There haven't been any hollow attacks." Ishida, first to point out the obvious help but missing the prolonging details. Tessai took up the explanation this time.

"The spirits are getting a second death. Nothing can cross over and the spirits in the area can not be sustained. Eventually the decay will build up and emerge to the human side of things. There may not be any hollows but everyone's souls will decay before passing on."

The light were held low and the children were sent to the Kurosaki house for the night. It was simply them huddled on a wooden floor. Yoruichi felt the closeness and paced back and forth as a cat. She needed more space. The barrier could still be ripped apart but only by her. They had not lifted the punishment for Kisuke yet and it seemed like only her blood allowed her a connection to the Soul Society.

"We can not even contact the Seireitei. I've tried- So have the vizards, almost desperately." They were lost. So many barriers holding themselves together. It was like everything is being fractured. Kisuke watched his friend move, unused to being trapped at all. Even the vizards were beyond them at this point.

"Urahara, is this something the Soul Society could have set up for Aizen?" Ichigo spoke up, but Urahara almost wished that he hadn't.

"Yes. I'm keeping your friends here for now. All of you go home and do not do anything. If the barrier gets stronger I am unsure how to break it down." They were trapped.

"What about us?" The Arisawa girl's entire body was trembling as she tried to sit up. The other three had fallen into unconscious with Tessai trying to sooth their pain using kido. Inoue looked out of the door, and frowned.

"Curiously that has nothing to do with the barrier." Inoue wasn't pleased, nor was Yoruichi. He still didn't want to say what he'd found it. It was purely...based on science.

"Urahara- what is going on?" Ichigo was furious.

"Your friends are in a conflict of their bodies. The lack of spiritual pressure around is stopping them from gaining powers like Yasutora and Inoue. However, there _are_ still growing and it's causing them this pain. Once the barrier is resolved they should be healthier again- but...it is uncertain how their powers will manifest." One detail was missing. He just _couldn't_ say it.

"Kisuke, I think that is enough for tonight. The children will have to stay in the room downstairs." Tessai, always concerned for the moment. The training grounds were still vaguely okay atmospherically. It wasn't perfect, but the children should be able to stay down there without complications.

"Good night. We'll discuss more when the others return." He ducked his hat low to avoid their eyes. The quickly started whispering about what their friends might have disappeared to...but he couldn't hear it.

Soft paws followed him into his workspace. Yoruichi would certainly be having words with him.

...

He'd been here for two days. After he returned from giving Gin his new order, he intended to lurk about Karakura in hopes of something. But the plan wasn't wrong- he just didn't except this trap to happen.

The best word he could come up with Karakura town's problem was atmosphere. Not the atmosphere someone would find at a theater or anything constructed by the implications and personalities of people, but the atmosphere of weather and worldly presences. Sousuke would have been gone a day ago had he been able to leave at all.

That barrier that erected itself around Karakura- and only the city block of it, not the spiritual world's idea of the city- we impenetrable. The Hyougyoku, as useful as it was, did not interact at all with the sheen of pressure around it. It was like the moon and stars; a part of the same picture but neither would have a true influence on the other.

The damage and neglect could be seen and he was glad that he'd pulled all the hollows out of this area. They would not have survived otherwise in this atmosphere. It was rather like being on top of a mountain with each breath becoming more labored than the next just trying to grasp at something to clear the vision away. And he did not feel the effects.

On third street there had been a traffic accident. The man's body was towed away hours ago but his spirit was laying there; prone, unresponsive, and for all account deader than dead. And, from what he could see, it was like that throughout the entire trap.

An afternoon in the blinding winter sun was enough to make him feel sleepy and lethargic. Being a super human in body did not always reflect so in mind and sleep was a necessity. To go without it would only mean early onset insanity, paranoia, and death of the brain. His initial transformations had scared him enough with that.

The sleep was but a brief interlude of things. Fragments of memories flashed through his mind's scape and pasted occurrences together as they should not have been. Momo Hinamori had never tied a pinata to Hiyori's pigtails, nor had Jushiro Ukitake woven baskets with his former Septima espada. They all meant nothing. It was the garish yellow and black that Sousuke would remember from his little nap. Every so often a censor would appear in yellow and black cautions tape: Police Lines Do Not Cross. Sousuke was no stranger to blood and murder but his dreams were never a crime scene.

He wasn't allowed into his own mind anymore.

The sun was down when he woke up gasping for air, Komamaru's gummy bear tea time slipping away from his conscience. In their place was bright lights made worse by his asphyxiation and his ears popping and loudly muting at the same time. The Hyougyoku was trying to restore him to homeostasis but he still couldn't breathe.

Red faced and swallowing air like water, he realized that all of Karakura was an atmosphere now. A near barren wasteland that couldn't support life, living or spiritual.

It was _not_ of his doing.

...

Headstrong and dizzy, Sousuke found the proverbial oasis in the desert for air. Radiating around a bridge was air that didn't seem to heavy and stagnant.

Sadly the bridge was of duel occupation.

"You're here again?" Kurosaki didn't look over to him. Sousuke frowned. Anger, hatred, amusement, anything would be preferable to apathy especially from what came to be his greatest help of them all.

"Stuck would be the operative word. You are aware that whatever efforts the Gotei Thirteen have done by erecting this barrier has all but destroyed this city." And the people in it, but that went unspoken. Aizen had seen the spirits and could imagine what the people caught between both worlds were feeling like. The boy tensed up but still didn't look away from the river.

When scenes went wrong the show didn't stop. Either a comedy or horror it keeps getting played off. He was suffering- but so were the ones Kurosaki cares about.

"Of course I could be presumptuous. This could all simply be a plan to divert my attention away from this city. Even if the vacuum were to be dropped immediately it would still take time, close to years, for it to regain its spiritual fertility. It seems you haven't cared enough to pass on my sincerest apologies." Still not a word was said again by the boy but his body language was changing over and over again. He would fidget, then tense, then look exhausted. Repeat performance.

"They don't need anything from you. Ever since you went after them my friends haven't been able to spend a day without pain." Ichigo felt like crap, but not like the others from the barrier.

He kept seeing Inoue's faced not-looking at him in the rain. He just wanted to be a little okay with her now- even if it meant throwing away the peace. Ishida- now there was something he didn't want to think about.

It had been seven days since the visit to Urahara's when things exploded. Ishida hated his name, and his feelings weren't returned, and that he was being used for sex.

Maybe the better idea would have been to _not_ tell him that the sex wasn't even the good part. He was as backstabbing as Urahara and was more heartless than Ulquiorra. He was homeless and not in school watching the world die around him.

"Then it is a bit cruel of you not to help at all considering your passion for this place." Sousuke was a firm believer in the power of manipulation. It had yet to fail him. Giving Ichigo the answer to some of his problems would be enough. Some more doubt and one bad

"I can't help them."

"Ah, you might want to check some of this oversight with your teachers. Reiatsu is like a muscle and the more you work with it, the better the control gets. Imagine hefting a sledge hammer to a single nail. The destructive force would take down and entire building, for example." Here he leveled a look to the boy, egged on by the defiance. Regardless of what side he might be on Kurosaki had a ...talent for collateral damage. "Temper off the weight, the size, and you get a more manageable tool. If your friends are suffering from how little power is in the air...why not give it to them?"

"I can't take the chance that you're not going to do anything. I can't hurt them again." Something was obviously disturbing the boy. He wasn't reacting as if he were actually here.

"Something happened in Las Noches. I can assure you that I did not ask for your half thought out party to get injured." He hadn't. Didn't care much either way but it was something he no longer had to account for.

"No, you didn't hurt them. I did." Sousuke saw into Kurosaki's eyes for the first time and his stomach dropped in reaction. The expression he was seeing was a depressed human, but inside those eyes was a clear rage. He'd done something by his own merit enough to scare him.

"Your powers helped Inoue and Sado grow into theirs. I can not imagine that the monster in your has done but the destruction of your precious nakama would fuel it." Sousuke didn't know why he was comforting Kurosaki but the words spilled out his mouth with meaning. The last time he'd gave real critique and not flowered praises was to Hinamori just to make the truth seem better. He was cold and he was cruel. Kurosaki stared before running off the bridge, taking the living air with him.

It was all for his gain. Sousuke clutched at his heart and clasped against the skin. He would not get caught up in his own illusion. It was simply impossible.


End file.
